The lack of LGBT historic sites with federal recognition is
garnering the attention of National Park Service officials.

They are seeking nominations of sites to be added to the
National Register of Historic Places and for consideration to be designated as
a National Historic Landmark.

"We are looking to preserve and protect sites
associated with LGBTQ history," said Alexandra M. Lord, Ph.D., branch chief
of the National Historic Landmarks Program.

To date just three sites, all on the East Coast, have
received any federal recognition specifically due to their ties to LGBT history.

In 2000, New York City's famous Stonewall Inn, considered
the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement, became the first, and so far
only, LGBT site to be designated a national landmark.

Since then the Washington, D.C. home of the late gay rights
activist Frank Kameny and the Cherry Grove Community House and Theater in the
gay resort enclave of Fire Island, New York were added to the register of
historic places.

The fourth site very likely will be the Henry Gerber House
in Chicago. Given city landmark status in 2001, the residence is where Gerber
lived in the early 1920s when he formed the Society for
Human Rights, the first American gay civil rights organization, according to
its listing on the Chicago Landmarks website.

The federal landmarks program is working
with University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Professor Michelle McClellan
and her students this semester on the nomination for Gerber's house. Once
submitted the approval process is expected to take up to a year, with the final
decision to grant landmark status up to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

"We are historians so we tend to think of chronology.
Let's start as early as we can," said Lord when asked why the property had
been chosen.

Another key reason landmarks staff selected the Gerber house,
said Lord, is because the owners of the private residence "are elated"
at seeing it be recognized. The property owners' consent is required for
granting landmark status or listing on the federal register.

"We can find sites that are really key, but if the
owners are not on board, we can't do anything," Lord said.

Looking for additional LGBT properties suitable for federal
designation, staff from the National Register of Historic Places and the
National Historic Landmarks Program hosted a webinar in October to discuss how
LGBT community leaders can work with the National Park Service to locate, document,
and protect sites associated with LGBT history.

The online talk, which attracted upwards of 30 participants,
was a coming out of sorts for the National Park Service LGBTQ Initiative.

"They are definitely fully supportive of getting LGBTQ
properties listed and included in the national memory, without question,"
said Megan E. Springate, who is seeking a Ph.D. in archaeology at the
University of Maryland and participated in the webinar.

Springate, who identifies as queer, is working on a National
Historic Landmark LGBTQ Theme Study and proposed framework for the National
Park Service as part of her graduate work. As explained in an early draft of
the document, the theme study on LGBTQ heritage is meant to "assist
government agencies and the private sector including organizations and
individuals to identify and evaluate places of historical LGBTQ significance in
communities nationwide."

It adds that because the intent is "to encourage
nomination of significant places to the National Register of Historic Places
and for National Historical Landmark designation, it should be thought of as
the beginning of an ongoing preservation initiative."

The framework, explained Springate in a recent phone
interview with the Bay Area Reporter,
"offers a context for people to be able to take their places and hook them
into sort of how these programs work. It is a way of fitting places into the
guidelines."

Even though the National Park Service manages the programs,
the properties that win federal designation remain privately owned.

"Being on the register or being a landmark does not
mean the government comes and takes your property. They are not looking to do
that, to make these properties to become part of the park service," noted
Springate. "They are looking to make LGBTQ history part of the national
memory. If you get listed you are part of the national memory."

Springate, who emphasized that she does not work for the
park service, said her collaboration with the federal agency began in late 2012
when she met several staffers who shared her passion for protecting and
publicizing LGBT historical sites.

"What they would love to see, and don't have to wait
for the framework, is to have properties nominated," she said. "They
are supportive and encouraging but they need people to fill out the
paperwork."

Local example

In terms of a local example, Springate pointed to the late
gay Supervisor Harvey Milk's old camera shop and campaign headquarters at 575
Castro Street, which is a San Francisco city landmark, as one property that could
receive federal recognition.

"Social change, community building, or commerce are
examples of the themes the park service looks at," said Springate, when
considering landmarking requests. "Milk's store is associated largely with
social change. If looking at some of the bars, it would be commerce and
community building."

The park service's efforts are receiving praise from local
preservationists and archivists working to landmark sites of cultural
importance to the nation's LGBT community.

"One of the most poignant parts was they were
apologizing for the fact they knew they were behind, they were way behind, on
acknowledging LGBT historic sites," she said. "They said they would
work with us and do the best they could to get some historic sites in the
pipeline. They highly encouraged us to meet anywhere we could with other local
and state historic commissions and any National Park Service regional
offices."

Los Angeles resident Wes Joe, who has worked on landmarking
local LGBT sites in his city, said he was glad to see the discussion take place
but would like to see the federal agencies offer more specific guidance and
resources for LGBT landmarking efforts.

"If they are serious about recognizing LGBT historic
resources, they have to realize that we don't have the institutional
organizational framework existing and they could maybe aide in developing
that," said Joe.

Jay Shockley, a staff member for the New York City Landmark
Preservation Commission, said he was "really quite surprised" to
learn of the webinar and the call for LGBT site nominations. Even though he
experienced technical issues trying to take part and felt some of the
information presented was too rudimentary, he welcomed the online talk as a
first step.

"I am ecstatic NPS attempted to do something," he
said. "The next step would have to be something very specific and has to
address issues with historic sites related to the LGBT community, such as the
fact they may not be existing anymore."

For federal landmark purposes or listing on the register, a
structure must still exist.

"We need to have a there there, something we are
protecting," said Lord.

That is a particular problem with LGBT historic sites, many
of which were situated in neighborhoods that have since been gentrified. They
may have been torn down or altered in such a way that their historical
integrity no longer is intact.

"Say a particular LGBTQ leader lived in a particular
house between 1940 and 1962 and was active then in LGBT rights. A property
needs to maintain the integrity associated with those years," said
Springate. "If someone knocked it down and built a newer building in the 1980s,
that property will not be listed because its integrity would be lost."

Yet it could still qualify for local or state recognition,
noted Lord, pointing out signage or a placard could be installed at the site to
mark its historical significance. In California, for example, a plaque can be
requested for a site considered to be a California Point of Historical Interest
or a California Historical Landmark as long as the property owner approves.

"One of the challenges of LGBTQ history is a lot of properties
are gone," noted Springate, adding that another is being able to provide
the proper documentation to support landmark status. "People were closeted
so there may not be a whole lot of documents. How do you document the lives of
people who are trying to be hidden?"

The framework she is writing will address such challenges
with LGBTQ history. Springate expects to deliver the completed copy to the park
service by the end of this year.

"Hopefully, it will be made available to people
interested in writing nominations and also to historic preservation offices in
the states as sort of guidance," she said.